Space City

lone star heroes

Opening Scene: The group is finishing up their meeting at the long since shutdown Space City Funplex getting in some much needed combat practice.

As they are leaving their bi-weekly meeting, they are met just out side by a beautiful young woman (apparently in her late 20’s) with a worried look on her face. He introduces herself as Theola and tells them in a worried voice that they have to hurry and stop her sisters before they can kidnap the city. Being somewhat intrigued/concerned by this the heroes ask for more details. She explains that she and her sisters are the ancient Greek sirens. And that their home is being threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf. Her sisters (not bad types usually) have taken it into their heads that if the land dwellers want to destroy the sea, that they will destroy the land-dwellers homes as well. She tells them that her sisters have lured the inhabitants of the city to some local park and that the heroes can find them there. The heroes take off with Theola to find her sisters.

It’s not hard to find the sisters (as well as most of the city) in Herman Park at the amphitheater. The heroes land on the stage in front of the three sisters and demand that they stop what they are doing. One of the sisters says that they are only trying to help the land-dwellers’ by safe guarding them from Hydra’s destructive nature. She then points to Theola. Being confused as to the different name the heroes all look at the woman that they met and she smiles and laughs a little. She’s right, she is Theola and now you are all going to pay for what you have done!

Cheetah runs up and is about to hit her from behind when he realizes that he can’t hit such a lovely woman as Hydra. Prime however has shaken off Hydra’s mental enslavement and backhands her across the face. There is the snapping of bones as Hydra’s neck is broken and she is knocked back lifeless into Archon’s arms. The crowd, the sisters, the heroes (and the players as well as the GM) are all shocked and stunned by the sudden, apparent death of Hydra; none more than Prime himself. Everything stops.

The sisters demand that the heroes give them some space and they have the crowd move in between them and the heroes and move them away. After a tense 15 minute argument between the sisters, the one they now realize is the real Theola says “This is our understanding and terms. We acknowledge that Hydra was evil and bent on the destruction of the land-dwellers’ home. For that we find that you, as heroes do, were only protecting your people. But, Hydra was our sister and her destruction had not yet reached the point of taking lives. We understand the ways of heroes, stretching back to the time of Ulysses. So, even though we understand your need to protect your city, hero, we can not let the death of our sister go unpunished. So, for atonement, we will have the transgressor serve us for one year at our leisure or we will finish what Hydra started. Do you agree to our terms?” Prime moved forward and knelt in front of Theola and agreed to the terms. Grim faced the three sisters nodded and as a show of good faith had the crowd disperse and return to where they had come from.

Theola summoned a large chariot drawn by four white horses and the sisters and Prime carrying the lifeless form of Hydra got on board. Theola told the rest of the group as they departed, “Remember, heroes are measured by the strength of their heart, not the strength of their arms.” With that, the chariot started moving and then vanished leaving nothing but sea foam behind.

Opening Scene…The group is gathered at Prime’s apartment talking and discussing recent events.

The group hashes out that yes they want to be a group and that they are all willing to give a shot at working inside the law if they can, but if they can’t at least the greater good will be served. After that, they hash out that as a team they will call themselves Star Guard, in keeping with the idea of the Lone Star state bit. Then they turn their attention to where to meet. Hours later after suggesting buying old National Guard buildings, Hotels for sale, Mansions for sale, Warehouses for sale, Office Buildings for sale, building a Celtic Hill-fort…they decided the property that will work best for them as a ‘secret’ base will be a junkyard…with the proviso that the old cars, tires and junk can be set up like a Celtic Hill-fort. So they arrange to start looking at different properties.

Then the group turns it attention to the issue of the Angel-Bots. They all agree (for different reasons) that the Angel-Bots are a bad idea, and that they should keep a close eye on them. The group has one encounter with the Angel-Bots. It is a bank robbery and by the time the group responds to the call the Angel-Bots have the situation under control.

Later that week, the younger members of the group (Archon, Cheetah and Prime) hear that a near legend Heavy Metal singer is coming out of retirement and holding a concert in Space City. This is the first concert Screamin’ Charlie has given in almost four years since the collapse of the last place he and his band played at. The official report was that the structure collapsed due to ‘structural instability’. Since then Charlie took up with the Church of Divine Harmony. Fearing something might be amiss, the younger members let Gauss and Hunter know about Charlie. Their combined research into the Church of Divine Harmony and its founder Heronomous Kinkaid uncover no dark secrets. So the group decides to attend the concert, ‘just in case’.

The night of the concert arrives and there is a huge crowd outside of the Glass Cactus and there is an equally large crowd inside, nearly standing room only. The concert starts and it is loud. The mosh-pit is full. and everyone seems to be having a good time. The band is mostly doing covers or other bands songs. After one song ends someone from the mosh-pit calls out for something new. Charlie asks if they all want something new. As one the crowd roars in agreement. He smiles and says “Here’s something you never heard before.” Then the band launches into “Hallowed Be Thy Name” The crowd a little stunned at hearing yet another ‘old’ song starts booing. Then Charlie cuts loose and opens up. The two large speakers at the back of the stage explode scattering most of the band (except the drummer) and half of the people in the mosh-pit. Then all hell breaks loose.

Charlie is screaming deafening most of the crowd. The heroes leap into action. A man stands up on the side of the room and starts blasting away with his rather large gun. Another man starts shooting lasers at Cheetah. A fire erupts in the corner and starts heading for the stage. Finally some ugly bug-man comes flying in from the mensroom and attacks Archon (and even has the nerve to make a bad pass at the girl Archon was talking to). And finally the crown surges towards the entrance trying to get away from bullets, fire and fighting supers.

In the course of the combat Cheetah knocks out Whiteout (the man with the laser). Archon continues to fight Dragonfly and chase him after he grabs the blonde Archon was talking to and flew away. Prime and Hunter beat on Mauser’s force screen as he blasts away at them. Gauss manages the crowd as best he can. Finally a single Angel-Bot comes in and demands everyone cease and desist.

By the end of the battle Whiteout is still unconscious. Dragonfly and Specter have flown off. Screamin’ Charlie isn’t screaming any more. He is in critical condition and and has to be rushed to the hospital to save his life. Mauser’s force screen device finally runs out of energy and he is quickly defeated by Hunter and Cheetah. Prime follows Specter out but looses the illusion of him in a parking garage. Archon is left with the choice of saving the girl or catching Dragonfly. He does the right thing. The crowd that has been surging at the front doors is finally set free by Gauss who pulls the pins on the hinges and moves the doors out of the way. There were a few minor injuries and four people that needed to go to the hospital for further treatment, but nothing life threatening. The fire in the club vanished when Specter flew away.

In the final wrap up of the evening with C.H.E.S.S., Whiteout, Mauser and Screamin’ Charlie are taken into custody and the Angel-Bots are on the look out for Specter and dragonfly. The C.H.E.S.S. representative on-site Bishop Theagenes expresses some concern about the Angel-Bots, but is sure that C.H.E.S.S. can handle the situation if things go badly.

Archon, Hunter and Gauss have all responded to the Mayor’s invitation. There is already a gentlemen with the Mayor. Mayor Parker introduces the man as Scott Price. Archon and Gauss recognize him as the richest and youngest billionaire in Space City as well as the owner of Dominion Tech. Mayor Parker then congratulates the heroes for their recent activities and the handling of certain malcontent elements in the city, like Mechanos. And the somewhat unnatural disaster of the blackout. You mean when the power station was attacked by Baron Char? Hunter piped up. Baron Char? Price asked. I thought it was just a plant malfunction. Why can it be, that there is something the great Mr. Price doesn’t already know? Mayor Parker gently chided. Then Price also congratulated the heroes, though with a slightly sarcastic twist to his voice. Then both Mayor Parker and Price commented on the fact that Prime was not present since he was the one that she contacted to set the meeting up. No one had a reason why he was not in attendance.

“But, gentlemen, the reason that I asked you here today is to listen to a proposition that Mr. Price has made to the city. Mr Price?” Mayor Parker said.

“Quite right Mayor Parker. Let me once again say that no one more than I appreciates what you have been trying to do for the city. But I feel what the city needs is full time protection for what the fine Police and S.W.A.T. departments can’t handle. I know we are lucky to have a branch of C.H.E.S.S. here as well. But they are only a little better solution…they still have to respond to the threat. No, gentlemen and Mayor Parker. What this great city needs is full time, always present guardians. And to that end I have created a solution, the Angel-Bot. A full time guardian for the city. What I propose is to locate an Angel-Bot at strategic locations around the city so their response time will be almost instantaneous in the event of crime being committed.”

Then he paused and let the assembled heroes ask the question he knew was on their minds. What about the ED-209 factor? Can’t happen gentlemen. Simply because the Angel-Bots do not have lethal ordinance. Then they asked about the Orwellian 1984 factor. Once again, not an issue. True, they do record video and audio of their assigned areas, but like cameras in police vehicles and at ATMs these are only for evidence retrieval. Other than that they will only be linked into the police alarm system, much like a bank’s alarm. Of course they will be linked back to Dominion Tech for maintenance, but that is all.

Having all their immediate questions answered, but still with some doubts, Mr. Price turned the meeting back to Mayor Parker. Gentlemen, I understand your doubts as I’m sure I share some of them. But the reason that I asked you here today was to give the Angel-Bots a test. I would like you to engage Mr. Price’s Angel-Bots to determine if they are all that he claims. the group agreed some what hesitantly. Fine gentlemen we have a place cleared for the test. If you will meet us there, here is the address.

Shortly, the heroes, Mayor Parker, Scott Price, and several gentlemen arrive at the test site. The gentlemen are introduced most are investors from other cities. But the last three are from Space City the Fire Chief Terry Garrison, the Police Chief Charles McClelland and the last gentleman is introduced as C.H.E.S.S. Bishop Theagenes.

So, gentlemen. What say we have a fairly short demonstration? You three versus six of my Angel-Bots? How about a minute? You win…no, you last the whole minute and I’ll pack it in. If you don’t last the minute we’ll all call it a done deal except for the minutia? We’ll see Mr Price. Said the Mayor. Let’s just see what your Angel-Bots can do against live opponents not on your payroll. Splendid! Price smiled. Well gentlemen, your opponents are right over there. Just like in actual deployment they won’t activate till you do something that violates their protocols, like attacking them say or using force out of bounds for normal society. But, you’ll see.

With that our three heroes entered the cleared park and saw six angel forms standing on one side of a concrete platform. After a brief moment to plan amongst themselves…“ANYTIMEGENTLEMEN!!!” Price yelled out. Hunter charged in causing one of the Angel-Bots to take to the air. And then the rest of the group engaged the Angel-Bots. After trading a few good shots between the heroes and the Angel-Bots, both Hunter And Archon were unconscious and Gauss was close and surrendered. The Angel-Bots landed and then again became motionless.

Price practically beamed for the assembled investors and the rest of the group. Hunter and Archon were woken up, tired but other wise unharmed. Thank you gentlemen! Price beamed at the heroes. He then turned to the investors and started talking future deals. The heroes caught Mayor Parker’s eye and motioned her over and asked if that was it. If that was a done deal for the Angel-Bots. She assured them that that had only won Price a six-month trial deployment in the city. And after answering a couple more questions, she said she had to catch up to the other group before Price decided to “improve” on anything else. But one last thing gentlemen, her voice dropped to a whisper, I asked you here so you could get a first hand look at how these things work. I expect you to have a contingency plan in place in case anything goes wrong. With that she excused herself and caught up with the other group.

Unseen by all was the refocusing of the camera in one of the Angel-Bot’s eyes as the Mayor whispered to the heroes.

While downtown for different reasons, Archon and Hunter both spot a maniacally laughing man dressed in a jester’s suit walking down the sidewalk and tossing exploding cards over his shoulders. They both recognize Mad Jack. Leaping into action they both attack Mad Jack and try to apprehend him. This didn’t go so well for either of them. Neither hero seemed to be able to land a solid hit on Mad Jack. Then Mad Jack tired of the heroes and bid them adieu, turned and started to walk away. At which time both heroes jumped him from behind and tackled Mad Jack and held him till the police could get there. Not pretty, but justice often isn’t.

Later that evening at The Space City Museum of Natural Science a new exhibit on Ancient Egypt was having a black tie opening and for various reasons, everyone was there. As the evening progressed Cheetah noticed that the sarcophagus of a 15th dynasty pharaoh was moving. Then suddenly the sarcophagus opened shattering the glass enclosure. A mummy walked out of the sarcophagus dressed in a steel gray robe and steel gray wrappings. Speaking in perfect English he announced to the crowd that he was Pharaoh Odjiuro, but that they could call him The Steel Mummy. He then gestured at those nearest him and they transformed into mummies (complete with wrappings). Then the heroes leaped into action and tried to bring him down and control the now crowd of mummies. The newly created mummies didn’t pose a lot of threat to the heroes and were mostly ignored. The Steel Mummy however seemed to be able to hold his own against the four heroes. This went on for about a minute or so before The Steel Mummy broke to an empty area of the room and summoned a ghostly chariot and quickly left the museum.

During the fight Archon remembered that his father (Wind Wraith) had told him about fighting the Steel Mummy back in the 70’s. Archon (along with the rest of the group) called his father and questioned him about the Steel Mummy. Wind Wraith told them about the Steel Mummy’s plans to rule the world by converting normals into his mummy drones. He also told them about the Mummy Queen (who didn’t seem to do anything except be by his side). And finally he told them about how the Steel Mummy disappeared in a titanic battle between the Justice Knights and The Horror Kings during a case he called ‘The Time Clash’.

The next day, Prime received a call from Mayor Parker. She told him that she wanted to meet with him and the rest of the vigilantes that have been operating in Space City recently. The meeting would take place on the 27th.

Prime flying patrol over a dark Space City when he hears the sound of a large amount of glass breaking. Flying down to investigate he finds the Burning Tigers gang entering the Phoenix Tower. He handily takes care of the members of the gang that don’t run away. As Prime is finishing up the Burning Tigers, The Hunter spots the Black Widow gang pouring out of an ally screaming for their lives. Right behind them is a large green tiger (at least 12’ long). The tiger knocks down and traps one of the Black Widows known as Dicie. The Hunter’s pack surrounded the tiger and allowed him to free the girl. The pack made short work of the tiger only losing a couple of members. While this is happening, Prime is calling after the last gang member who stops and starts to back up. A moment later Prime sees why. A very large purple furred bear (some 20’ across at the shoulder) comes slowly walking around the corner. Before the bear can devour the hapless gang member Prime jumps to the rescue. After a short slug-fest, Prime manages to knock the bear out. Hunter decides to take his kill off to reward his pack while Prime cages the bear and calls CHESS to report the capture of the gang and the bear.

Hunter finished his pack’s reward and returns to the scene of the kill and tries to pick up the trail of the tiger. Having no luck, he does the same thing with the bear and tracks it back to a medical lab at Rice University. Talking to a couple of the lab techs scurrying around a wrecked lab, he finds out that not only had the tiger and bear escaped, but also a large blue ape, a very large yellow bird and a large multi-colored wolf. When he asked her to explain is sounded something like “Autosomal Dominant Polydactyl Syndrome visa via Fluorescence Activated Polychromatic Cells”…and that was as close as she could come to layman’s terms. With this bit of information in hand, Hunter decided to wait and talk to the Dean to find out what he knew and didn’t know.

Meanwhile, Prime figuring that there must be something wrong at the power plant (StarTex Power), flew out to see if he could help. When he got there the scene was a study in organized chaos. Finding the On-site Coordinator (Shaarik Zafar) he was directed to the Fire Chief to find out where he could do the most good. The Fire Chief (Terry Garrison) told Prime in no uncertain words that this was a situation for professionals and that the firemen of Space City had everything under control. Ten minutes later with the next explosion, Prime went and picked up a foam truck and carried it over the center of the fire and released the foam. While the foam was being dumped, Prime saw the flames jumping around in a rather unnatural way. After the truck was empty Prime scanned the crowd looking for someone suspicious but didn’t find anyone. He then called CHESS again with his concerns and the operator put him through to Dr. Chronopolis. Explaining his theory about there being a fire controller somewhere near by he asked if the Dr. had anything that could detect that type of energy. Dr. Chronopolis said that he had a device that was almost ready for field testing and that he would send a Rook over with it as soon as possible. Hanging up, Prime went and got a garbage dumpster and scooped up some dirt and went back to try and fight the fire. Dumping it on the strange acting flame, the flame jumped out of the way in a very fluid manner. Having enough of this, Prime went and refilled his dumpster with dirt and took it and plowed directly onto the strange fire. Just as he thought it was smothered, the dirt and the dumpster exploded from underneath Prime and there stood a being made out of fire. Then in a voice that seemed to be the combination of a tenor and a wildly crackling fire the being spoke, “Baron Char’s service has been dispatched. The next time Baron Char visits your dismal world…it will be his!” With this pronouncement, the fire being disappeared. The fire at the power plant was fairly quickly dispatched after this.

The next morning as Dean Spann wearily walked into his office, he was met by The Hunter waiting for the him with one of his dogs. After a short conversation, with the Dean reassuring Hunter that he was well aware of what had been lost during the night, told Hunter in no uncertain words what the loss of the green tiger was going to cost the University and the research program to boot. Hunter told the Dean that wild animals were not made to be caged but to roam free and to be hunted as needed. Needless to say the Hunter and the dean did not see eye to eye on the situation.

Opening Scene…
A dark room. A computer screen lights up a figure that you can only see from behind. The figure says to no one apparent, “The attack begins now.” His metallic hand reaches out and presses a button in front of him. A metallic chuckle fills the air. Fade out.

Cut to Downtown Space City…
Four large robots (12’ tall) land in the street in front of City Hall and proceed to attack and destroy what is in front of them. Our four heroes spring into action attacking the robots. After a few minutes of combat (game time, not real time) the heroes started to get the upper hand. Then a fifth even larger robot (24’ tall) lands and declares, “Cease your struggles! You cannot defeat Mechanos! Surrender and your deaths will be merciful!” At which point the heroes finished dealing with the first robots and started attacking the new threat. Working together the four heroes brought down the final threat. Even though there was property damage and the robots killed several innocents, the heroes managed to contain the threat.

Cut to Final Scene…
Same dark room, same figure, same view. The figure once again reaches out a metallic hand and presses another button. “Start phase B.” An evil metallic laugh rings through the room. Fade.